Salt Lake Tribune, Utah
April 23 2005

Utah Armenians march to remember ancestors’ deaths

Genocide claim: Those at the gathering seek closure to what they call
slaughter by Turkish Ottoman Empire

By Jason Bergreen
The Salt Lake Tribune

Photo: Krikor Meguerditchian holds his two-year-old grandson, Garo,
Friday at a march to commemorate their Armenian ancestors’ killings.
(Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune)

Two-year-old Garo Meguerditchian peeked over his grandfather’s
shoulder and shook a miniature Armenian flag Friday as the pair and
more than 20 others marched in Salt Lake City to commemorate the 90th
anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
Though the peaceful demonstration was small, four generations of
Armenians gathered outside the Wallace F. Bennett Federal Building at
noon to remember the deaths of 1.5 million of their ancestors.
“We are trying to let people know and spread the word that our
fallen countrymen haven’t been forgotten,” said organizer Armen
Taroian.
Historically, Armenians have contended that Muslim Turks who ruled
the Ottoman Empire during its decline at the turn of the 20th century
subjected the Christian Armenian population to deportation,
starvation and massacre between 1915 and 1918. The genocide is
officially commemorated on April 24, when in 1915, 200 Armenian
community leaders were arrested in Constantinople and later killed.
Today’s Turkish government has refused to acknowledge the past
killings and commonly refers to the violence as a side reaction to
World War I.
Members of Friday’s march carried signs reading, “1915 never
again;” “We will never forgive, we will never forget;” “Take your
hands off our land;” and “Eastern Turkey is Western Armenia.”
Marcher Garene Bekearian said: “We need closure. It’s been 90
years and it’s not there yet.”
Utah Armenians, who come from

Lebanon, Iran, Syria and Armenia, also want their children to
embrace their heritage.
“I think every Armenian wishes their grandchildren to know they
are Armenian,” Krikor Meguerditchian, said smiling at Garo. “We are
trying to keep our language. That is number one.”
Krikor was born in Lebanon and moved to Salt Lake City in 1979.
“Half my life is over there and half is over here,” he said,
smiling again and returning to the march.
Armenians also would like the world community to acknowledge and
denounce the genocide and have the United States proclaim April 24 as
an official day of remembrance, Taroian said.
The 2000 U.S. Census lists 2,024 Utahns of Armenian ancestry and
359 of Turkish ancestry.
“We want to normalize relations,” Taroian said. “We all know
Turkish people here and if our characters match, we are friends.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Mercury-Register, CA
April 23 2005

Central is stop for international educators

By Rick Longley/Education Writer

A contingent of foreign school principals visited Central Middle
School on Thursday for a look at American education with a California
style.

About 15 administrators from Armenia and the former Soviet republics
of Georgia and Azerbaijan were charmed by Central Principal Rick
Hilliard whom one described as one of the “most colorful and
interesting principals he’d met in the United States.”

The group was part of a national American Councils for International
Education tour hosted by California State University, Chico for a
Northern California trip to schools in Sacramento, San Francisco and
Butte County. The principals also visited Washington, D.C. earlier
and was set to go home Saturday, officials said.

Hilliard delighted the educators with enthusiastic comments about his
philosophies on education and how he runs the school.

He told the visitors Central has 790 students attending its seventh
and eighth-grade classes who come from all socio-economic
backgrounds.

Its teachers teach classes in beginning math to algebra plus history,
English, reading, science and a host of other subjects, he said. This
is done with the aid of computers in most classrooms plus some in the
school’s library where he met with the group.

Hilliard noted the students are provided a safe learning environment,
but he has the expectation they will come to school prepared to
learn.

In addition to teaching the California curriculum standards, Central
Middle provides field trips to places like Washington, D.C. for its
eighth graders and to Ashland, Oregon for the Shakespeare Festival.

Central also offers closed-circuit television and students run their
own TV network complete with interviews and news programs on school
issues, he said.

“My philosophy for education is that we will always strive for
excellence and never accept mediocrity,” Hilliard said.

California requires all school administrators to rise through the
ranks of teaching before becoming principals, Hilliard explained, and
the Oroville Elementary School District also requires its principals
to hold master’s degrees.

The visiting principals indicated their system is similar in that
principals must first teach before moving up to administration. A
translator relayed their comments to Hilliard and the other Americans
at this visit.

He was joined by world history/geography teacher Steve Herman and
Central counselor Tere Lawrence who took two groups of principals on
visits to various classes while Hilliard escorted the Armenians.

Herman is a former Fulbright Scholar who’s done teacher exchanges to
England, Poland and the Ukraine, where he lived and taught for a year
at a time.

In addition, Herman brings his travel experiences to the classroom
and shares his life abroad with the students. He told the principals
he first wants students to know where places like Rome are today
before discussing ancient civilizations. That way they have a
contemporary feel for the past.

Hilliard said he does not try to instill fear in his staff, opting
rather to work with teachers and employees in a partnership while
still providing advice and guidance as requested or needed.

The visitors were impressed with the California school but somewhat
confused by the differences in school grade levels as their students
go to one school from first grade through 11th grade.

In the U.S., students attend elementary school, then middle school
and finally high school before going on to college or the workplace.

The American educators also mentioned having plenty of parent
advisory groups like the PTA and Parent Club to assist the school,
and the school district is run by an elected local school board which
sets policy in conjunction with the state and federal guidelines and
so on.

In the end, Hilliard received a round of applause for his input and
the visitors lauded him for being an active principal with a “humane
and loving heart.”

Los Angeles Daily News, CA
April 23 2005

Family keeping news of friends’ deaths from crash survivor

By Josh Kleinbaum, Staff Writer

If visitors are wearing black when they drop by Natalie Darmedjian’s
hospital room, her family gives them colorful shirts and jackets to
wear instead.
Nobody wants Darmedjian to know that Araksia Muradian and Ani
Muradyan, her two best friends, are dead.

Muradian, 17, and Muradyan, 16, were killed and Darmedjian was
critically injured Monday night when Muradian’s 2001 Toyota Avalon
slammed into a pole on Coldwater Canyon Avenue. The dead girls were
cousins.

Darmedjian, sitting in the back seat, suffered broken bones in her
legs, hip and chin. And her family doesn’t want the trauma of her
friends’ deaths to hamper recovery at Providence Holy Cross Medical
Center.

“First, we started off by telling her that one has a broken hand and
the other has a broken leg,” said Ahgavni Abdallah, Darmedjian’s
cousin. “Now, we’ve increased the severity. Her mom tells her,
‘They’re not doing too good. We don’t know if they’ll make it.”‘

The three girls, friends since middle school, were on their way home
from their part-time jobs at a telemarketing firm at the time of the
crash, Abdallah said.

Abdallah said Darmedjian told her family the Avalon was involved in a
chase with another car.

“From what Natalie told us, a black car was in front of them with
Armenian (window) flags, and all of them wanted to see who was in
there,” Abdallah said. “It seems like it was a chase. We don’t know
who was provoking who.”

But police say Muradian was speeding in the left-turn lane on
Coldwater Canyon Drive, near Oxnard Street, trying to pass two cars,
when she lost control and slammed into a pole. They estimate she was
going 70 mph in the 35 mph zone.

“All of the witnesses that have been identified provided the same
information,” police Detective T. Wolfe said. “They were driving way
too fast. No other cars were involved, and there was no apparent
reason why they were driving too fast.”

Darmedjian’s family urged others to learn from the tragedy.

“At that age, nobody realizes how important your life is, and how
much driving fast can end that,” Abdallah said. “Speed, it’s the
enemy.”

Portland Press Herald, ME
April 23 2005

Portland: Anglicans to commemorate Armenian Holocaust Sunday

The Anglican Cathedral of St. Paul will commemorate the Armenian
Holocaust at High Mass on Sunday.

After the 10 a.m. Mass, a procession will take place to the Armenian
Community Memorial on Cumberland Avenue in Portland.

This will be the third year St. Paul’s Cathedral has marked the
Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923, when
more than 1.5 million Armenians died.

Portland’s Armenian community dates back to the late 19th century. A
memorial was dedicated to the community in Portland last year.

The cathedral is at 279 Congress St.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The New Anatolian
April 23 2005

Turkish Armed Forces plans to modenize and reorganize by reducing
numbers

Evren Deger

Chief of General Staff Gen. Hilmi Ozkok says four brigades to be
eliminated under Turkish Armed Forces’ modernization and
reorganization project

The brigades abolished are the 10th Infantry Brigade (Van-Ercis), the
Ninth Armored Brigade (Cankiri), the Seventh Mechanized Brigade
(Kars-Kagizman) and the 33rd Mechanized Brigade (Kirklareli). The
28th Division Corps in the town Sarikamis in Kars will also be
disbanded, reducing the number of brigades to 46, and corps to three

The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) is continuing efforts to reform its
vintage Cold War-era structure into a more flexible and efficient
military by abolishing four brigadesand a corps.

In his speech at the Turkish War College on Wednesday, Chief of
General Staff Gen. Hilmi Ozkok indicated that the reorganization of
the TSK was being carried out under a project called Force-2014. The
brigades and division corps set to be abolished under Force-2014 are
the 10th Infantry Brigade (Van-Ercis), the Ninth Armored Brigade
(Cankiri), the Seventh Mechanized Brigade (Kars-Kagizman), and the
33th Mechanized Brigade (Kirklareli). The number of Turkish military
brigades will thus fall to 46. The 28th Division Corps in the town
Sarikamis in Kars will also be disbanded. Therefore, the number of
corps will fall to three, with two in Cyprus and a training corps in
Isparta.

Reasons for reorganization

Military officials stress that the modernization and reorganization
of the army will continue. “The goal of the Turkish military is to
reorganize our military units, which are dispersed around a wide area
according to the requirements of the Cold War, and to prepare them
for immediate mobilizations to crisis areas,” said one official.

The officials also indicated that further restructuring will follow
the abolition of the brigades and the division corps.

Defense officials underlined that eliminating the two brigades based
in Van and Kars reflect a change in Turkey’s perception of the threat
from Armenia.

Gen. Ozkok’s speech

General Ozkok’s speech touched on the status of the Force-2014
project, saying that the project had been prepared with recent
regional developments and the shift in Turkey’s perception of its
threats in mind. “Under the reorganization, the army shrunk these
four brigades last year. This year, we will abolish the brigades
outright and also reduce the size of our division corps’ forces,”
said Ozkok.

He stressed that force reduction in the military could only be
achieved as part of a carefully planned modernization program.
“Unplanned reordering could cause disasters, thus our goal is not
only to abolish the division corps and brigades, but also to increase
our remaining units’ preparation and combat capabilities,” he said.
“The abandoned barracks will be used by universities and other bodies
for educational purposes.”

Zaman, Turkey
April 23 2005

Armenia to Medal Recognition of So-Called Genocide
By Ali Ihsan Aydin

Journalist-writer Ragip Zarakolu and Ali Ertem, chairman of “Union
against Genocide” Turkish organization in Germany, will be granted
with “medal of courage” as they showed the “courage to recognize the
Armenian Genocide.”

Ertem and Zarakolu will receive their medals at Paris municipality
during a reception that will be organized by Paris Mayor Bertrand
Delanoe in the honor of Armenians who live in Paris. Ara Toronian,
head of The Coordinating Council of Armenian Organizations in France
(CCAF), will give the medals. Ertem, who lives in Frankfurt Germany,
participates in the so-called Armenian genocide conferences in Europe
and Armenia claims: “Turks are the only nation who were not judged
for the genocide that they committed and the violence it directed
against Kurds who were used by Turks during the genocide.”

‘Turkey arguments for the arousal of Armenian Identity’

The French Armenian Diaspora, which is the largest and most organized
Armenian organization in Europe, has launched a big campaign all over
France for so-called April 24 anniversary. Armenian organizations
will have rallies today and nationwide in France. In Paris, Armenians
will light the Unknown Soldier fire at Champs Elysee and will march
to the Turkish Embassy. They place electronic lighted banners
reading, “We remember the Armenian Genocide” on billboards around the
city. A commemorative ceremony in the famous Notre-Dame Cathedral for
the memory of those who died in 1915 will also be held. Almost all of
the French televisions will broadcast documentaries and debate
programs about the so-called Armenian Genocide. Armenians also
organize conferences and panels in many cities about Turkey’s EU
membership. Chairman of Armenian National Committee of Europe (CDCA)
Vartan Arzoumanian said in his interview to Le Figaro that Turkey’s
EU membership process helped Armenians to reshape an Armenian
Identity in Europe and added, “We try to advertise the 1915 Armenian
Genocide in great effort before the genocide is totally forgotten.”

ic Wales, UK
April 23 2005

Armenian concert to thank Wales Apr 23 2005

Karen Price, Western Mail

WHEN Wales became one of the first nations in the world to recognise
the Armenian genocide, one man wanted to say thanks.

Arnaud Amat did not even know where Cardiff was when the National
Assembly made the decision just over two years ago.

But he sought the city out, came over on an exchange as a charity
worker and has now organised the first ever concert of Armenian music
on Welsh soil, which takes place tonight.

More than a million people died in a series of massacres carried out
by Turkish members of the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923. The
Turkish government denies the killings constituted genocide but has
come under increasing pressure over the last few years to recognise
the crime.

In December 2002, a cross-party group of AMs got together to declare
the genocide “one of the sad chapters in the annals of contemporary
history”.

Cardiff Council then became the first British city to recognise the
genocide, incorporating it into its Holocaust Memorial Day
commemorations in January.

“The Welsh Assembly members’ meeting came about when Europe was still
not recognising the genocide as it should,” said Mr Amat, who is
French but of Armenia origin. “I wanted to see Cardiff and pay
tribute to the people because of that.”

Mr Amat is now working in Cardiff for a year with the young people’s
charity ProMo-Cymru and has organised for Keram, a band playing
traditional Armenian music, to perform in the city.

The concert takes place in the Reardon Smith Theatre at the National
Museum and Gallery in Cardiff tonight at 8pm.

Woonsocket Call, RI
April 23 2005

This Week at the General Assembly:

Candlelight march, State House event commemorates Armenian Genocide

The Rhode Island Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide was
marked Friday at the State House with a ceremony at the conclusion of
a candlelight march commemorating the 90th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide of 1915. The event began with a memorial service at
Sts. Vartanantz Armenian Apostolic Church at 402 Broadway,
Providence. Participants then marched to the State House, where
federal, state and local dignitaries participated in a program
commemorating the tragedy.

Zaman, Turkey
April 23 2005

Belgium Punishes Armenian “Genocide Deniers”
By Selcuk Gultasli

Belgium prepares to give imprisonment and fines to those who deny the
Armenian Genocide. The extended present Jewish Genocide bill was
accepted in the Belgian parliament on Thursday, April 21.

There were 108 “Yes” votes but no “No” votes against the new law and
there were also 21 abstainers in the election. Thus, Belgium will be
the first country where those who deny the Armenian Genocide are
sentenced to prison and fined. If the bill is put into practice, the
Turkish politicians in this country will have difficulties voicing
their ideas.

The law draft passed from the Justice Commission on April 15 and was
approved on April 21 then sent to the Senate. If it is accepted by
the Senate it will be sent to the King. Observes noted that it is bad
news that the draft passed from the parliament because most of the
drafts that were accepted by the parliament are accepted by the
Senate.

The draft, which was accepted on April 21 and extends the present
Jewish Genocide Law envisages imprisonment from eight days to one
year and a fine from 26 euros to 5,000 euros to the “deniers.” These
punishments will be given to those who underestimate the genocide,
who defend it and who support the genocide or crimes against
humanity. These crimes have to be described by the International Law.
Denying Genocide in the international courts which are recognized by
Belgium, United Nations (UN) General Assembly or the Security
Council, Belgium Justice or any other EU member country will be
sufficient to lead Belgium justice mechanism to work. Therefore, the
justice mechanism will allow Belgium to bring criminal charges
against the “deniers” if this action is counted as a crime in any EU
country.

If the bill becomes law, politicians of Turkish origin in Belgium
will have great difficulty voicing their ideas. Liberal Party member
of Turkish decent Sevket Temiz who said recently on a radio broadcast
that there is not strong evidence that an Armenian Genocide took
place in 1915 is having great difficulty these days. Temiz’s being
sent to the party’s disciplinary organ is on the agenda now. Temiz
had suggested in his speech that an independent and common History
Commission should investigate the issue. It is estimated that 150,000
Turks live in Belgium but there are only 6-7,000 Armenians living
there.

Journal of Turkish Weekly
April 23 2005

An Armenian Autobiography Refutes Claims of Genocide

SOURCE: Hurriyet, 23 April 2005

An autobiographical book of an American citizen of Armenian roots is
being promoted in the US by Ata Erim, the Chairman of the Federation
of Turkish American Associations. The author, Edward Tashji, friend
of the Turks, has written a real life account of what happened. In an
interesting turn of events the book refutes claims of genocide
against the Armenians.

The book, which is titled, “Armenian Allegations – The Truth Must Be
Told”, will be sent to American senators, parliamentarians,
governors, mayors, TV anchormen, newspaper editors, university and
high school libraries, members of European Parliament and all members
of the United Nations.

Unfortunately, the author couldn’t attend the book promotion as he is
lies in intensive care for three weeks, however, Tashji’s wife, Mary
Tashji and relatives were there.

A Turkish group is planned to march in Washington on April 24, to
protest the Armenian claims of genocide.